Grigori Soul
by Hidding-In-Shadows
Summary: After volunteering for her friend, Maka Albarn must face the challenge of being in The Hunger Games. (Hunger Games AU)


**Chapter One**

When she woke up, the air around her was hot and the thin sheets on her bed clung to her skin. Maka Albarn blinked the sleep and sand from her eyes as she shoved the covers off. The heat was regular in her home of District 12, and it was nothing that could be avoided during this time of the year. The pink nightgown she had on was stuck to her skin and it made her face twist with disgust. She pushed herself up, giving her back a loud pop before glancing over to the second bed in the room.

Red dyed hair covered the dirty pillow that lay under her father's head. She saw that he too had discarded his blankets from the heat. His arms were spread out and his tan, bare chest was rising and falling with each breath of sleep. Maka sighed and rubbed at her eyes with the balls of her palms, trying to get the nightmares out of her mind.

Today was the day that every child had dreaded. Reaping day.

"Spirit." she mumbled, looking to her father. "Wake up."

He stirred for a moment before he opened his blue eyes. Blinking his own sleep away, he glanced to Maka and gave her a soft smile. Maka just turned and slid off her bed, flattening her sleeping gown. She heard him yawn as she grabbed the trousers she had thrown on the floor last night and tugged them on.

"Where are you going?" Spirit asked as his bed creaked under his weight.

"Out." Maka looked to him over her shoulder as she took the nightgown off, the tank top she slept in stained from her sweat. "I'll be home in time for the reaping."

Before he could say anything back, she pushed her feet into her boots and grabbed her long, black coat from the end of her bed. Maka slammed the door behind her as she walked outside and into the street and glanced at the small homes that were scattered beside the dirt road, the wood that held the home together starting to turn a sickly green. Tucking her blonde locks back behind her ears, she looked down the road as eyes from inside the homes followed her. She didn't look like the others with her pale skin and hair; her father may have been born into the district, but her mother was brought to District 12 at a young age. Kami's parents had been sellers and taken part in business with the officials of the district.

Maka tucked her head down as she turned a corner, walking down a slightly cleaner road. She felt her skin itch with the want to got out into the forest today, but she needed to find her friends first. The first was Blake Starre, or as he went by, Black Star. Maka had grown up with the reckless boy and they had been best friends for as long as she could remember. The second was Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, an older girl who Maka had met while hunting with Black Star a few years back. Tsubaki had lived in the district her whole life, but was on the wealthier side, so they had never met before. Now, the three were glued to each other.

"Hey, there's the bookworm!" a bellowing laugh echoed down the empty street and Maka looked up to see Black Star . . . with blue hair.

"Hush Black Star, people are still sleeping." Tsubaki was standing next to the loud mouth, the eighteen year old glaring at him.

"Oh God, don't tell me you've gone Capitol Crazy like my Papa." Maka hissed as she looked at his neon colored hair.

"A God like me turning into your lame ass excuse for a father? Please Maka, as if." he swatted at the air with his hand as he talked and Maka rolled her eyes. Tsubaki just sighed.

"Alright, are we going or what?" Maka asked, pushing past the boy. "You know what today is and we don't have a lot of time."

"Maka's right. We need to get going if we want to get anything and trade." Tsubaki walked next to Maka. "Are you nervous about today?"

"Aren't you? I know it's your last year but . . . reaping day in general is frightening." Maka sighed. "I still have two years to go through."

"It'll be okay Maka." Tsubaki hummed as they walked out of the clusters of the homes and into the thin forest surrounding the district. "I'm sure everything will be just fine."

"You two are being downers." Black Star said, wrapping his arm around the two girls necks even though they were both taller than him. "Think about tonight and how we'll celebrate."

"And two families will be locked in their homes crying." Maka hissed, glaring at him. She stopped as the wired fence came into sight. "This whole thing just just a load of shit that the Capitol uses to intimidate us districts."

"Oh, would you both just stop talking." Tsubaki grumbled, walking to the fence, her hands around it. She pulled the wire up. "Let's get going before the sun gets too high."

The three teens wiggled their way through the false barricade and into the thicker part of the forest. Neither made a sound as they walked through, picking their weapons from hollowed parts of trees and logs. Tsubaki balanced her throwing knives in her palms, looking around for any animals. Black Star had drawn an arrow in his makeshift bow, inspecting the wood to see if it would hold for a solid hit on a target. Maka was kneeling as she leaned under the roots of a tree, his hand skimming the damp soil. She felt something rough and grunted as she tugged out her sickle scythe. It was rusty, the wood for the handle would soon rot because of the water damage to it, but she was going to use it until the day it broke in her palms.

"Alright, you and Star can go hunting, I'll gather." Maka said, standing and dusting the dirt and leaves from her knees. "We'll meet back here in an hour." Maka's eyes flashed to Black Star. "And please, don't get any big kill. Remember what happened last time."

Black Star waved her off, him and the older girl already walking. Maka shook her head and turned, walking towards the berry bushes she found the previous year.

Earlier in the year, Black Star and Maka went hunting while Tsubaki stayed in town to watch her older brother who was injured in a mining accident. While out, Maka heard Black Star shout out and she raced to find him, thinking he had been injured. When she came across the boy, he was towering over a large doe he had shot down. Maka smiled, excited that he had gotten such a good kill and knew they could get a great price. Then she cursed under her breath, raking a hand through her blonde locks.

"How the hell do we explain this to people?" she hissed, pointing to the dead animal. "We can't just walk into town with a doe."

Black Star shrugged. "We can say it wandered into town."

"Oh yeah, because a doe can walked through an electric wired fence."

"Only it's not electric."

"But we're the only one's that know that you idiot!" Maka felt like throwing the nearest rock at her idiot friends head. "Christ . . ." she pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought of what to do. They couldn't just waste the thing, this was good quality meat. "Okay, here's what we do. We're going to cut it up, disperse it between us and Tsubaki, and then never speak of it again."

"But we can get, like, four months worth of bread for this." Star threw his arm out at the doe. "And it's my kill, I should do what I want with it!"

"Then it'll be your body going under six feet of soil." Maka hissed. "We're doing what I said, now stop whining and start cutting." She tossed her scythe down. "I'll get some rope from the traps."

After meeting up with Tsubaki at the fence, the three took their share and went home. A few day's later, Maka heard a grunt and knock on her door in the middle of the night. She pulled herself out of her bed and opened it to see Black Star, his face bloody and swollen.

"Christ, what happened?" Maka hissed, pulling him on and sitting him in the single wooden chair in the kitchen.

"The Kishin's found out, paid me a little visit," he mumbled, blood trailing over his lip.

The Kishin's. They were the officials sent from the Capitol to make sure the districts stayed in their rightful place. No fighting, unless the Kishin's started it. No uprisings, unless the Kishin's started them. And no going outside of the districts limit, unless the Kishin's wanted to.

Maka was snapped back to reality when she heard a rustle in the bushes. She kneeled down, gripping her scythe in her hand a little tighter as she waited for whatever was making the shrubbery move to come out. A few moments later, a light brown rabbit sneaked out, its nose twitching. Maka smiled at the easy kill and lunged at it, grabbing its ears quickly and slitting the throat. This had to get her at least one roll of bread.

"Maka!" Tsubaki came from behind the blonde and she turned to see the older girl painting. "We've got to go. They're here already, we did-"

"Leave the kill, we'll get it tomorrow. Where is Star?" Maka placed the rabbit down on the forest ground. She knew some wild animal would enjoy eating it later.

"Putting our things away."

Maka nodded and the two girls walked swiftly through the forest to where they saw the blue haired boy shoving his bow and arrows into a bush. Maka kneeled, placing her scythe back into the roots of the tree and looked to the two. "We were out walking around the alleys and lost track of time. Alright?"

The two nodded at the excuse and they rushed back to town, slipping through the fence without trouble and hurrying back home. In the group of three, Maka was the leader. Even though she was the youngest, she'd been through the most and the older teens respected her. Her mother died in a mining accident when she was twelve; after that she grew up. At twelve, she was out in the forest, throwing knifes at the birds who flew out of the bushes. At thirteen, she could shot down a rabbit from thirty feet. And at fifteen, she held her own when in a fight with Black Star. She even gave him a black eye for two weeks. She knew how to live and she knew how to live safely.

"Papa, I'm home." Maka called out when she walked into her home. Her father was standing in the kitchen, adjusting the collar of his pale blue button up. He looked to her, smiling weakly. "Is the bath ready?" she asked, sliding her boots off.

"Yes. I put something out for you, too." He watched as his daughter walk to the room they shared and then into a too small bathroom. The tub was full and when Maka undressed and sunk into it, the tears began to fall.

She knew she wouldn't get picked, but there was always a chance. Fifeteen times. Her name was traded in for grain and oil for the year. On the first year, her mother had pinned her hair up in a bun. Maka looked lovely and her mother only told her that if there was a chance she was going to the Capitol, she was going to look her best. Now, as Maka slid out of the tub and dried herself off with a ratty towel, she couldn't care less about what the Capitol thought of her.

The dress that was laid out for her was pale green, something her mother wore on special occasions. Maka pulled the dress on, buttoning the four small white buttons on the top before tying the back of it. In the mirror she sighed heavily and combed her hair out with her fingers. Bangs brushed over her forehead as she pulled her hair into her signature pigtails.

"You look beautiful. Just like your mother," Spirit whispered from the door of the bedroom.

"We should get going." Maka's eyes flicked to him in the mirror.

The father and daughter duo walked through town with the crowd, hands clasped together. This was the only time that Maka allowed her father to hold her hand. They were never close, but on a day like this . . .

"I have to go," Maka mumbled, turning to her father. Spirit gave her a shaky smile, tears in his eyes already as he leaned down and wrapped his arms around his only child. Maka returned the hug tightly, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry, it'll be fine," she whispered.

"I know. I know."

Maka joined the other kids and walked to her rightful group with the sixteen year old girls. She looked ahead where the older girls were, skimming their heads to find Tsubaki's long, dark ponytail. When she did, Maka watched at the girl's hands clenched into fists in her white dress, anxious for this day to end. It was her last reaping, after all. After today, Tsubaki would be safe.

Maka looked to the other side of the town square, easily finding Black Star's dyed hair. He looked over to her and gave her a goofy smile. He had his name placed in more than her, twenty-four times. Tsubaki had twenty-eight.

In front of the crowd was the temporary stage that was always set up each year. Lights stood high and bright on the stage, camera's swiveling as they filmed the frightened audience. Maka balled her hands up as she watched Blair Kate walk up the stage. Her dress was a rich purple, hair dyed a darker version of the color. Her face was covered in white powder, long eyelashes ticking her blush covered cheeks. Her black covered lips pulled tight in a smile as her amber eyes trailed over the crowd. In the center of the stage stood a single microphone, two clear bowls on either side, one with boys names, the other with girls.

Maka held her breath as Blair walked to the center and tapped on the mic with one of her long, golden finger nails to check if it was on. When the muffled noise echoed through the center she hummed happily and giggled.

"Welcome!" she chirped happily, lips curled. "Happy Hunger Games everyone! May the odds ever be in your favor." She pointed to the crowd, waiting for a response. When none was given, she cleared her throat, a little embarrassed. "Well, before we begin, we have a video from our Capitol!" she waved her arm and everyone turned to see a screen being lowered, static flashing for a single moment before a video showing up.

It was the same every year. Actors from the Capitol dressing up and crying with dirt covered faces. A voice bellowed out, deep and wise. It reminded them of the war that raged on years ago, the one that had cause the whole system to begin in the first place. Maka shifted uncomfortably, wishing that this whole process would just stop. The video ended after a few minutes and Maka let out a shaking breath, closing her eyes tight.

"Well wasn't that just wonderful!" Blair purred at the microphone. "Now, time for us to pick our brave and courageous tributes for District 12! As always, ladies first."

Blair shuffled over to the bowl on her left and dipped her hand in, fingers dancing over the names before she plucked out a paper that lay on the top. Maka was shaking, breath rapid. It wasn't going to be her. There were some girls who had their name put in forty times. There was no way in hell that she was going to be picked. Not a chance.

And she was right. The name that escaped Blair's lips was not hers.

"Tsubaki Nakatsukasa."


End file.
